Please imagine any of these gentlemen having sex with you.

Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote that "the advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time". While this may be true, I think he missed the real advantage of a bad memory - that we are allowed to forget the truly unpleasant things that happen to us. Imagine what the world would be like if memories didn't fade, imagine walking around with every trauma, every insult, every embarrassment still fresh in your mind like it just happened. Unpleasant no?

Now imagine having John Travolta, Judd Hirsch, and Tony Danza all banging you... and know that this memory wasn't going to fade. Welcome to the hell that is Marilu Henner's life. I actually hesitate to call it hell, as I doubt that Dante himself, could have dreamt up such an awful existence.

Last night on 60 Minutes it was revealed that Marilu Henner suffers from Hyperthymesia, the unfortunate condition where one can remember nearly everything that happens to them in astonishing detail. That she carries on with her life is a testament to her strength and bravery. While I've always enjoyed her role in Johnny Dangerously, I've never really given her the credit that I now think she deserves. I think it's safe to say that most of us, if faced with the same existence, would have performed a Rosemary Kennedy-style lobotomy on ourselves after Judd Hirsch alone.

Finally, we can get some important work done...

***Spoiler Alert - there is some vulgarity in this post, but it's all for science.***

Google recently released a new tool that allows users access to millions of digitized books published over several centuries so that they can search how frequently a word, or several words, appeared over time. The implications of this sort of technology are immense; students, researchers and even lay-people now can plug in words or simple phrases and gauge what authors, as a whole, were thinking at various times.
We can now make charts that measure the "published zeitgeist" and from that, gain a better understanding of how opinions were trending. For instance, the chart below illustrates the historical frequency of the more polite words "penis" "vagina"against the courser, more offensive "dick" and "pussy" between the years: 1920 and 2008.



Upon review of the data it becomes clear that somewhere around 1980 the publishing community became over-run with vulgar animals, as use of the more genteel/clinical nouns began to level off, and published instances of the harsher terms started to tick up (of course this study was hastily assembled and its implications haven't yet been fully explored, it is possible that beginning in the 1980's there was a jump in Richard Nixon biographies and cat ownership, the Barryrides research staff will conduct a follow-up study to confirm this. However, based on projections from this data, it is reasonable to believe that in another 10-15 years medical texts will trade the words "penis and vagina" for "dick and pussy" - completely reasonable).
Another quick illustration of the awesome potential for this tool can be found in the chart below which attempts to pin down when a Clint Eastwood/Monkey movie would most likely be made:



One can see that while over time, "Clint Eastwood" references in published literature (indicated by the blue line) remained relatively flat, while use of the word "monkey" (shown in red) peaked in 1976. With interest in Clint Eastwood and Monkeys at their respective all-time-highs, one would expect Hollywood to take notice, therefore it should come as no surprise that in 1978, the film "Any Which Way but Loose" was released (script approval, filming, and distribution would account for the 2 year gap).

The possibilities for this technology are limitless, more studies to come...

It's time for the holiday card...

From the Barryrides family.

Biking

It's been a really long time since I have ridden a mountain bike but after watching this video no less than five times today and I think it is time to start again.

FRAMED-Andi Wittmann Rider profile from Felix Urbauer on Vimeo.